Triathlon is humbling - lessons learned from Timberman

Triathlon Forum
1

Well, now back from a week in the White mountains after Timberman. I went into this race with a year and a half of training form being a fully fledged beer swilling, smoking, overweight couch potato. It was an excellent learning experience, if a bit disappointing personally.

First off, great race - kudos to Keith and crew. I picked the race figuring if I was going to try something like this, I wanted a good race, cause if I hated longer distance at least I got some fun out of it. And the race and surrounding events were a blast. Second, I came in seriously undertrained, with work forcing me into almost three months of only training on weekends. Thanks to all on this forum who gave me good advice how to salvage out the last couple of weeks to survive the thing.

I had really scaled back my goals - I wanted a good swim (my strongest part of tri), and to survive the race. While my placing in the swim was about where I usually am (39/142 AG), my time was slow by about 3-4 minutes of what I can usually do - not sure if it was conditions, or slightly long, but I wasn’t thrilled with the final result, though it felt good at the time. The bike was steady but my usual snail pace, though was on the aerobars for nearly the whole time. This was unusual for me since riding in the Blue Ridge has me on the hoods nearly 50% of the time. As a result, I really started to feel it in the hips and back at the end, and I paid for that dearly on what laughably could be called the run. The other thing on the run, besides my hips being locked up and unable to run up hill worth crap, was for the first three miles my stomach ached like a SOB - and it wasn’t gastric distress, but rather tight muscles from being in the areo postion that long. The first 3 miles were OK, but after that the fatigue just piled on. 6:19 total - I really thought I should have broken 6 even with the poor training regime.

So, things I learned.

  1. Even though I have made big imporvements in each discipline, it doesn’t amount to much when you put all three together. I need a lot more training in overall endurance to be able to maintain a strong performance.
  2. Need to get some form of bike tariner so I don’t keep giving up so much conditioning over the winter, and can grab short workouts at home when long work hours don’t permit getting out and riding. Also need to spend more long hours in aero position to condition those muscles better.
  3. Probably need to get my bike fit checked/re-done (see above comments about fatigue in the hips).
  4. Core strength conditioning is a big factor for me, and I need to toughen up there. Once my core goes, form falls apart, and the run becomes nothing more than pounding on the legs. The balls of my feet were killing me on the run, and I never have that problem in training runs.
  5. A year and a half is not much time in the long scheme of things. I was feeling a lot better this year on our sprints and Oly’s, having gone from a bop clyde to a mop age grouper, but when you double the bike and run, you soon find out that what you thought was cake was really just a Twinkie.
  6. You may be able to get away with sub-optimal training in shorter distances, but a long distance race will make you pay. While I have little control over what work will make me do, I have a greater appreciation of the effort I will need to put out trying to keep a real training schedule going if I want to do half way decently.

Anyhow, spent the next week hiking in the White Mountains and sampling the micro-brews in Woodstock and North Conway. So now it is back to the end of tri season here in Virginia, and prepping for the Richmond Marathon. Feeling a bit down about my abilities right now, but will start gearing for some of the Virignia 70.3 (Kinetic, Patriot) next year, as well as trying to qualify for Boston, either at Richmond or Shamrock next spring. The gods know I have no place to go but up.

Anyhow, Timberman was an awesome event, and some day I will come back and kick it’s ass in retribution.

Much humbler and with a greater respect for many of you on the forum

2

Great job. Forget your time. Did you have a good time? Are you healthier? Are you excerising as a lifestyle?
Takes 8 to 10 years to peak at your max potential if you train most of each year.

Do you know if you are better at, or enjoy more shorter or longer events yet? Do not get pulled into the ST
longer is better unless that is where your genetic strengths are? First year I have not had one long race,
and I sure enough racing each race, rather than just completing a race. I do that in training all the time.

Again, congrads. You have done more than 99.9% of the population!!

Dave

3

Actually yes, the race was fun and I had a good time doing it, other than the pain of the last 6 miles on the run. And yes, all around healthier etc, so it has been a worthwhile journey.

I have no idea if I ma better at shorter distances. Certainly I place comparatively higher at this time, but that isno real indication. If past history dictates anything, I have never been a good sprinter other than swimming. Actually what I am good at is going hard for 5-10 minutes, take a minute rest, then repeat - many times. So I do well at things like boxing or martial arts tournaments, where you have a few minutes of intense activity, with a brief rest.

I liked the 70.3 distance - it is challenging, but I believe utlimately doable in my lifestyle. It does raise the question of whether I would ever do a full iron - but that is years down the road. Probably I would find the same challenge if I treained specifically for sprints or Oly’s, just different. Time will tell where I settle.

4

Hey Jim, I think you did really well just to get to the startline given what work threw at you in the final 3 months leading to the race.

Glad to hear you finished even if you don’t think you acheived your goals. You finished and without injury.

Good job.

5

Thanks Julian - the injury thing is a good point. I am still pretty pleased at my recovery from that pounding. However there was NEVER a question of making the start line. I am way too cheap a bastard to lose out on that much registration money.

6

Enjoy that you just completed a 70.3. I ordered my stickers the just the other day. Your times only matter to you and your goals. You doing something that 95% choose not to do, BEING ACTIVE.

This Timberman was my first 70.3 as well. Four years ago I could MAYBE ride my bike 3 miles; 5 sprints (3xtimberman), 1 international (lobsterman) later, I had a incredible bike time of 2:50, 5:37 Total: Incredible in my mind, don’t care if someone else can go faster; my goal was 3:10 and I crushed it.

Just as important during the run I learned that walking up a hill eating jellybeans is more fun then just walking up a hill.

Also learned:

  That the last 100 meters of a 70.3 feels darn satisfying.  

  Being on the same course as the pros is fun, seeing them STILL on the course with you is very fun. 

  Being passed by a great looking 30 year old women and not being able to keep up with her sucks. 

  Being passed by a guy with 60 something written on his leg, makes me wish I’m in that good of shape when I’m his age. 

  Being passed by a guy with one leg is inspiring. 

  Seeing the Hoyts is memorable and cool. 

  Watching your son do his second kid tri is very cool. 

  Watching your wife kick bottom doing her first sprint is simple awesome.
7

All great points learned - though for me it was a 65 year old woman on the run - she just kept pushing. Awesome stuff. And the guy with one leg was pretty amazing too.

I really did have fun at the race, probably was just post event let down.

One other thing I did learn was I can swim in chop. I went out on the Saturday and did the sprint course in 3 foot breakers. Not seeing much chop in Virginia lakes I wanted to make sure I could handle myself and had the most fun in an open water swim I ever had. I love timing the waves and rolls, and was actually hopoing for rough water on Sunday.

I guess one other lesson was that I really want to pound to a pulp people that go blowing by you on the run with “R” on their leg - how dare they have fresh legs at that point in time!!!

Now that it looks like Wilmington may be on for a half - I may gun for that one as my A race for next year - I will be very curious to see what I could do on a flat course.

But now the main focus is Richmond Marathon.

8

Jim,
Congratulations on showing up for and finishing Timberman. I love your attitude. I see you’re doing the Richmond marathon and if I recall correctly you did shamrock last spring. Care to compare your experience at Timberman(70.3) with doing a full marathon?

-Keith

9

One other thing I did learn was I can swim in chop. I went out on the Saturday and did the sprint course in 3 foot breakers. Not seeing much chop in Virginia lakes I wanted to make sure I could handle myself and had the most fun in an open water swim I ever had. I love timing the waves and rolls, and was actually hopoing for rough water on Sunday.

that made me smile.

10

Thanks Keith

Not sure what you mean by experience. As a physical experience, my first marathon (Marine Corps last year) was probably the most painful race I have done to date. Toasted my priformis, wlaking down stairs backwards for days. By Shamrock, I was much better conditioned, and the phsyio and core work I did after Marine Corps made it pretty much a long training day. Now Timberman was a different type of hurt - it really was just not enough engine to power the whole way, so became more an issue of mental to push through with what you have left. Physically was more tired than a marathon, but less actual damage. Pain free the next day.

Now as to an overall event, it has been my experience that the tri crowd parties harder than the mary crowd. Shamrock is small, and you don’t see a lot of people before the race, and Marine Corps most people seemed so serious. The tri group was just a hoot at the dinners, lots of great poeple and conversations. I really enjoyed the whole 3 days at Timberman more than anything around running races.

Not sure if that answers your questions.

11

Yup, pretty much what I was looking for. I’ve done marine corps and shamrock and now a bunch of sprint tri’s and have signed up for Eagleman next year. Thinking about doing the Patriot half(weekend after next), sort of as a fact finding mission/training day, to get an idea of where I am. Thanks for the input.

-Keith